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COL. PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

(From a sketch by J. Trumbull . 1776) 



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Colonel Paul Dudley Sargent 

of 

Sullivan, Maine 



Col. Sargent was born at Salem, Mass., 1745; he was the 
son of Col. Epes Sargent, of Gloucester, Mass., and his second 
wife, Catherine Winthrop, widow of Samuel Brown, of Salem, 
and daughter of John and Ann (Dudley) Winthrop, of Boston, 
where she was born. Paul Dudley Sargent resided in Gloucester, 
Amherst, N. H., Salem, Boston, and Sullivan, Me., where he 
removed about 1787. His business was that of a merchant. 
The Rev olutionary War almost ruined him financially. He had 
a large interest in vessels, which were lost by capture or ship- 
wreck. He was said to have been one of those who planned 
the Boston Tea Party. He was an intimate friend of Lafayette. 
His advanced age prevented his acceptance of the invitation 
to meet Lafayette at Boston, when he visited this country, 
in 1824. 

His nephew, Daniel Sargent, of Boston, under date of 
August 26, 1824, writes: " * * Your old fellow soldier, Gen. 
Lafayette, is now here, and I have just had the pleasure and 
honor to pay my respects to him." Col. Paul Dudley Sargent 
was a Revolutionary pensioner, and his pension added much 
to the comforts of his old age. He was the first Chief Justice 
of the Court of Common Pleas; the first Judge of Probate, 
a Justice of the Peace, all for the County of Hancock; all 
of the commissions were signed and issued by Governor Han- 



Page five 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 




LUCY SAUNDERS 
Wife of Col. Paul Dudley Sargent 

(From a Silhouetle) 



Page six 



COLONEL PA U L DUDLEY S A RG E N T 

cock on the same day. He was the first Representative to the 
General Court from Sullivan; appointed Postmaster the 
twentieth year of the Independence of the United States. 
He was also one of the original Overseers of Bowdoin College, 
1794. 

A biographical sketch of Col. Sargent, from the Boston 
Palladium, 1828, is here given: 

" Col. Paul Dudley Sargent, of Sullivan, Me., was a son of 
the late Col. Epes Sargent, of Gloucester, Mass., by his second 
wife, who was the widow of the Hon. Sam'l Browne, of Salem; 
she was granddaughter of Gov. Joseph Dudley, and a descen- 
dant of Gov. John Winthrop. 

The subject of this memoir was born in Salem, Mass., in 
the year 1745, and was brought up in Gloucester, where he 
married a daughter of the Hon. Thos. Saunders, a patriotic 
and distinguished member of the Council of Massachusetts 
during the disputes with the " Mother Country." Paul 
Dudley Sargent was an early asserter of the rights of the 
colonies, and one of the first who took up arms in their defence. 

Being in Boston in the year 1772, he had the honor of an 
invitation to be present at a meeting of that celebrated club of 
patriots, Hancock, Samuel Adams, and others who took the 
lead in the Revolution, and he gladly availed himself of the 
opportunity. The question which was debated upon that 
occasion, was the organization of the militia, or the best mode 
of disposing of them, and it was determined that companies 
of volunteers or minute men should be raised and disciplined. 
In a very short time after his return to Gloucester, a company 
was raised there which he joined, and in the formation of which 



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COLONEL PA U L DUDLEY SARGENT 








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COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY S A RGE N T 

he took an active and zealous part; but having become obnox- 
ious to the Government he deemed it expedient, with the 
advice of some of his friends, to remove to Amherst in New 
Hampshire, where he soon raised and trained a very large 
company. In January, 1776, he was chosen, though not by a 
duly authorized body, commander of the southern part of 
the country, while Stark was chosen commander of the northern 
part. In a few hours after learning that the British had pene- 
trated into the country as far as Lexington, and were proceeding 
to the northward, he marched with about three hundred men, 
and in the evening of the same day arrived at Concord with 
one thousand strong, where, by the committee of safety then 
sitting there, he was directed to remain until further orders. 
Two days afterwards he was ordered to Cambridge. He expec- 
ted to obtain a Colonel's Commission from the General Court 
of New Hampshire, of which he was then a member, but was 
disappointed. They ordered the troops to be put under the 
command of a general from New Hampshire. Gen. Ward then 
took him to Watertown, where the Convention of Massachu- 
setts was in session, and represented the case to them. Several 
of the leading members, as well as Gen. Ward, took a lively 
interest in it, and altho' the full number of commissions had 
been made out for the command of regiments, the convention 
determined to add another for Mr. Sargent. He soon raised a 
regiment, and had an advanced post assigned him at Inman's 
farm. 

At the time of the Battle of Bunker Hill he was very desir- 
ous of joining our troops there with his regiment, but Gen. 
Ward, apprehending that the post at Inman's farm would be 



I'aoe nint 



COLONEL PA U L DUDLEY SARGENT 

attacked, did not think it advisable to permit it. The General's 
apprehensions proved to have been well founded, for a large 
schooner full of men attempted to get up, but the wind being 
ahead and the tide turning, prevented her. Col. Sargent then 
had leave to join the troops at Bunker Hill, but it was too 
late. He got near enough, however, to receive a scratch by a 
four-pound shot from a gunboat lying at Penny's ferry. After 
the British evacuated Boston, Gen. Washington ordered him 
into the town and gave him command of the Castle under 
Gen. Ward. This gave him the command of all the boats 
that could be procured, by which means he protected and was 
greatly instrumental in saving the valuable powder ship 
which was sent in by the brave but unfortunate Capt. Mugford. 
A few days after, he took with him two hundred men and two 
six-pound cannon to Long Island, and in the night threw up a 
small work. At daylight, some British who still remained 
near the coast, perceiving the work, and supposing it to be much 
stronger than it was, got under way immediately and departed. 
Soon after he was ordered to New York, and marched from 
Boston with an uncommonly full regiment. On his arrival he 
was posted at Hurl Gate, where he had a battery of twelve 
eighteen-pounders. The British threw up a work opposite to 
him on Long Island, and they cannonaded each other steadily 
and constantly for seven or eight days, when the British 
landed at Turtle Bay, about a mile below the American Fort. 
He was then ordered by Gen. Washington to move to the plain 
back of him, there form in order to cover the retreat of part 
of the army, and wait further orders. This order was duly 
and happily executed ; the British were formed in front of him, 
about a mile distant, but did not choose to attack him. He 



Page ten 



COLO N EL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 



remained on the ground until night, when he was ordered on 
to Harlem Heights. At this time he was commander of a very 
strong brigade, as Col. Commandant. In the skirmish at that 
place a number of his men were killed and wounded, several 
of them on each side, and very near him. The next day he 
was ordered to retire over King's Bridge to West Chester, 
and from thence he was ordered to White Plains, where he 
performed very severe duty, and by hard fighting and sickness 
lost a large number of his men. He finally became sick himself, 
and was obliged to leave camp for a number of weeks. On 
returning to the army at Peekskill, he found an order to join 
Gen. Washington in Pennsylvania, under the command of 
Gen. Lee. They crossed the river at King's Ferry, December 
2, 1776, and marched without making much progress until 
the 13th, when a party of British Light Horse surprised and 
carried off the General, who lodged at a house about three 
miles from his troops. Immediately upon being informed of 
the facts. Col. Sargent took about seventy picked men and 
went in pursuit of them, following their tracks for seven or 
eight miles but without success. The troops then marched 
on with speed under Gen. Sullivan, and joined Gen. Washing- 
ton on the 23d of December. Two days afterward they were 
ordered on the famous expedition to Trenton. Col. Sargent's 
brigade was in the division which succeeded in getting over 
the river, and did itself much honor on that memorable and 
auspicious day. He was in the second affair at Trenton, and 
also in the engagements with the British regiments coming 
out of Princeton. 

After the brilliant victories at Trenton and Princeton (as 
they were then called on account of their beneficial and import- 



Page ilcten 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

ant effects), Gen. Washington led his army into a place of secur- 
ity in order to give them the rest which they so much needed, 
and at this tim^^Col. Sargent returned home. He then engaged 
in privateering with the same spirit and activity which he 
had shown in the army, and previously, from the commence- 
ment of the disputes with Great Britain. A respectable 
gentleman in this commonwealth (Massachusetts), now living, 
who was attached to his regiment, and afterwards to his brigade, 
and from whom a part of the information contained in this 
memoir has been obtained, speaks in the highest terms of his 
patriotism, bravery and services. He was lavish of his money 
as well as of his time and health in promoting the general 
cause. 

When peace took place he resumed his business as a mer- 
chant, but like many, if not the most of the American mer- 
chants of that day, he was unfortunate. He retired to a small 
farm at Sullivan, in the District (now State) of Maine, where 
he lived many years enjoying the respect and esteem of his 
friends, neighbors and fellow citizens. He represented his 
town in the General Court, and was honored by appointments 
to a number of civil offices under the government of the com- 
monwealth and of the United States. He took a lively interest 
in passing events, to the day of his death and rejoiced in the, 
welfare of his country. He left a widow and a large number 
of descendants." 

Colonel Sargent died in Sullivan, September 28, 1828. 
He married in Gloucester, Mass., November 12, 1772, Lucy, 
the daughter of Hon. Thomas and Lucy (Smith) Saunders. 
She was born November 24, 1752, and died in Sullivan, October, 
1840. 



Page tirelee 



COLON EL PA UL D UDLE Y SA RGENT 



From a Nonagenarian 

Concerning Col. Paul Dudley Sargent and his daughter, 
Mrs. Julia Sargent Johnson. 

This record is found in a little booklet that belonged to 
Dr. Winthrop Sargent, and after his death was found among 
his papers by his son, Winthrop Sargent. 



Died. 

"In Weathersfield. Conn., June 30th, 1877, Mrs. 

Julia Sargent, widow of the late Dr. A. Johnson, 

aged ninety-two years." 



Something more than a passing obituary may be allowed, 
even in these busy days, to one who was the last link between 
her own, and the present generation; whose reminiscences of 
childhood stretched back into the eighteenth century; who 
could, through father and son, lay a hand on each of our great 
national conflicts; who could give delight to children and 
grandchildren by tales drawn from personal recollections of 
refugees of the French Revolution, and who remembered 
Prince Talleyrand as a guest at her father's table. 

Mrs. Johnson was the youngest but one of a family of 
seven daughters and two sons, with whom in the year 1788, 
Colonel Paul Dudley Sargent and his wife Lucy Saunders 
removed from Boston to Sullivan, Maine. 



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COLO N EL PAUL DUDLEY S A RG E N T 




COL. EPES SARGENT 
Ancestor of the Gloucester Sargenis 

{From a portrait hy Copley) 



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COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

Paul Dudley was the eldest son of Epes Sargent by a second 
marriage, his mother being a descendant of Gov. Winthrop 
and granddaughter of Gov. Dudley. Col. Sargent had com- 
manded one of the nineteen regiments which constituted 
General Washington's camp in Cambridge, in July, 1775, and 
at times shared with the young Marquis de Lafayette the 
honor of aid-de-camp to the Greneral. 

Regiments in those days were not up to the present regula- 
tion number, and Col. Sargent's (not the least) numbered 
one hundred and ninety-two men. 

To these he supplied shoes and other garments, at his own 
expense, and after serving honorably more than three years 
retired from the army, having sacrificed nearly all of his 
private fortune in the cause of the Young Republic. 

There are also family traditions of East India merchandise, 
taken when nearly in port, by English privateers, which so 
exhausted his resources that he was induced, at the age of 
forty-four, to make for himself and family a humble home on 
the coast of Maine, where he lived to the age of eight-three 
years in greatly reduced circumstances. Sullivan, on French- 
man's Bay, is unsurpassed for natural beauty on the whole 
New England Coast, but of schools or teachers or social advan- 
tages there was nothing to compensate the rising family for all 
they had left in Boston. But the Colonel had brought with 
him a good library and there was much reading of historians 
and poets, and much sharpening of wits one against the other, 
by these young people also much visiting back and forth by 
bridle roads between them and " Fountain Leval," a colony 
of French refugees on the same coast, with occasional and some- 



J'ayt: Jifltcn 



COLONEL PA U L DUDLEY SARGENT 

times prolonged visits to Boston relatives; and so it came to 
pass that the seven daughters all grew up into intelligent and 
accomplished women, holding their own in society everywhere, 
and their numerous descendants are now filling honorable 
positions throughout the land. 

Among the remnants of family correspondence is a letter 
from a nephew, Daniel Sargent, (brother of the late Lucius 
Manlius, whose father was half brother to Paul Dudley) dated 
August 26, 1824, in which he says: " I yesterday went to visit 
the family of our late cousin Epes. 

" They inquired and talked about you, and Mrs. Sargent 
was particularly desirous to know if the Government has 
restored to you your pension. I promised her that I would ask 
the question, and I hope I may be able to say ' yes ' ". 

He also asks if his uncle has received a remittance of money, 
" from your niece and my cousin, Mrs. Powell," and goes on, 
" your old fellow soldier. General Lafayette, is now here and 
I have just had the pleasure and honor to pay my respects 
to him. You doubtless see by the papers how cordially and 
gratefully he is everywhere received." 

In reply Col. Sargent says that his name is not replaced on 
the pension list though he has taken every step possible in that 
direction, save perjury, that he did not receive Mrs. Powell's 
remittance, says, " It would be a pleasure to pay my compli- 
ments to General Lafayette, but it is debarred m.e," and 
fervently thanks his Boston relatives for their interest in and 
kindness to " one who is but an inch from the tomb," that his 
health "is as good as one of seventy-nine years of age can 
reasonably expect," that he enjoys his " bowl of bread and 



Page sixteen 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

prayed with old Mrs. Sanders at Capt. Gibbs.' (This Mrs. 
Sanders was mother to Mrs. Gibbs.) Joseph left an only son, 
Thomas, who was born at Pleasant Point, George's River, 
June 17th, 1753. On the death of his father he was taken into 
the family of his kinswoman, Mrs. Gibbs, wife of Daniel 
Gibbs, she being sister of Thomas Sanders (3) by whom the 
expenses of his education were defrayed. Concerning Capt. 
Gibbs, we read that he was a merchant. In his will proved 
April 8, 1762 he gave to his two half sisters, Mary and Letitia 
Archibald, twenty shillings each and to his wife the rest of his 
property. Rev. Samuel Chandler's records speak of Daniel 
Gibbs as being very ill on March 10th and 20th, and on the 
21st " was sent for to Capt. Gibbs'; found him dying; attended 
him till he died, about 8 o'clock in the evening," and on the 
24th of March, 1762, he attended his funeral. Rev. Jabez 
Bailey, says in his journal: " This evening had an interview 
with Esq. Gibbs, who behaved toward me with a degree of 
complaisance I had always been unaccustomed to, though I 
must acknowledge I have had my share of extraordinary 
caresses from several persons who have been in exalted stations. 
I was pleased with this gentleman's aversion to rusticity and 
profaneness." Mrs. Gibbs died January 27, 1769. By her will 
she gave most of her property to Thomas Sanders, 3rd, her 
nephew, and wished that he might have a liberal education. 
She also made bequests to Mary Sanders, sister of Thomas, 
and to Mary Edgar. She left an estate of 2,269 pounds. Thomas 
Sanders graduated at Harvard, 1772, and excepting occasional 
employment during the war in privateering, is believed to 
spent his whole after life in teaching school. After keeping 



I'aye twcnly-nine 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY S A RG E N T ___ 

the town school for several years he was hired by a number of 
individuals, who erected the building long known as the 
Proprietors' School House, to take charge of a select school. 
He had been in their employment but a short time when, in 
consequence of severe and unmerited censure of his course as a 
teacher, a depression of spirits was brought on and induced such 
a state of mind as caused him to put an end to his existence, 
April 23d, 1795. He lived in a house which stood on or near 
the lot on which the City Hall now stands. At the back side 
of the house was a well, at the bottom of which his body was 
found and into which he fell or threw himself after committing 
the deed which ended his life. He was lamented as a capable 
and faithful teacher and an excellent man. His mother married 
David Ingersol for a second husband and his only sister Mary, 
married Eben Hough, a shipmaster in Gloucester, who died 
about 1793. As soon as Thomas had graduated from college 
at the age of nineteen he married his cousin Judith, daughter 
of Hon. Thomas Sanders. They had a number of children, 
one of which, Lucy, became the wife of Rev. Stephen Farley, 
of Atkinson, N. H., and another, Joseph, of Philadelphia. 

John, the third son of Thomas Sanders (3) married Hannah, 
daughter of Elder James Sayward, January 23, 1753, and died 
after six years' illness. Besides two daughters he had a son, 
John, born October 24, 1753, who married , Jemima Parsons, 
May 12, 1757. He was a sea captain and died October 24, 
1807; she died at the age of eighty-one. 

4. Thomas Sanders, 2nd, our ancestor, was son of Thomas 
Sanders, 1st and Abigail Curney, and was born March 20, 1704, 
He married Judith, daughter of Captain Andrew Robinson 



Pagr thirty 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

(which line see), in 1728 and died October 24, 1774, aged 
seventy; she died August 30, 1770, aged sixty-six. He was 
generally known as " Captain " Thomas Sanders and was 
commissioned as lieutenant of the sloop " Merry-meeting " in 
1725 and passed a large portion of his life in the service of the 
Province as commander of a Government vessel. On one of 
his voyages to the eastward he was taken by a party of French 
and Indians. Under the guise of a happy and contented appear- 
ance he allayed all their apprehensions of his escape, and at 
Owl's Head took an opportunity, when they w^re sound asleep, 
to abscond with their bag of money amounting to about two 
hundred dollars. This he hid under a log and then made his 
way to the fort at St. George's. Many years afterwards, 
returning from Louisburg, with General Amherst on board, 
he related the adventure to that officer, and, becoming be- 
calmed near Owl's Head, requested the General to go on shore 
with him and assist in looking for the money. The latter was 
somewhat doubtful about the story but complied and soon 
after they had reached the shore saw Sanders lay his hand upon 
the prize. In January 1745, he sent a memorial to the 
Governor urging his inability to support himself, and to get 
good able-bodied men to nagivate the Province sloop under the 
scanty allowance made them, and praying for an addition to 
the wages of himself and company, and to the allowance 
for the hire of the Sloop " Massachusetts." The Governor, 
in communicating the memorial to the House of Representatives 
says, " I am satisfied with the reasonableness of Captain 
Sanders' request, and am extremely loath to lose so experienced 
and faithful an officer. I must desire you would give him such 



I'ligr Ihirli/-n7\e 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

relief as may make him easy in the service." The wages and 
pay referred to were — for the sloop, five shillings a ton per 
month; for the captain, five pounds per month; to the mate 
a trifle less, and to the sailors, fifty shillings per month each. 

Captain Sanders was engaged in the expedition to Cape 
Breton the same year, and during the siege had command 
of the transports in Chapeau Rouge Bay. In many respects 
the adventurous life of Capt. Sanders resembled that of his 
wife's father, the noted Captain Andrew Robinson, both 
having been captured by the Indians, and both making their 
escape. In the diary of Rev. Samuel Chandler we find frequent 
mention of his enjoying the hospitality of Capt. Sanders, and 
in the entry for July 1, 1750, we read that on his way home to 
dinner he found a " large rattle snake killed today at the 
flat rock with twelve rattles; 'twas laid across the wall by Mr. 
Whites; we went out and cut off the head and buried it; 
afternoon we went in the chaise to Capt. Sanders, he at home; 
drank punch and tea there; he was very courteous, desired me 
to frequent his house, the oftener the better." Later we find 
the record showing that Capt. Sanders was taking steps to 
join the First Parish Church, as follows: January 1, 1762. 
Very cold; visited at Captain Thomas Sanders'; had much 
free conversation with him; he is inclined to come to com- 
munion and Baptism. January 2. Exceedingly cold; went 
again to Capt. Sanders'; wrote his relation." This was a 
customary preliminary to receiving church membership. A 
public notice of his death says, " He was a gentleman well 
respected among those who had the honor of his acquaintance, 
and died greatly lamented." He had eleven children of whom 



Payf thirty-tua 



COLON EL PAUL D U DLE Y SARGENT 



feet.' Her industry in those last years was wonderful. In the 
month that completed her ninety-first year, when the weather 
was oppressively hot, she knit seven long stockings and the 
eighth a few days afterwards, and the winter before her death, 
when she had knit little mittens and pretty little stockings 
almost innumerable for her grandchildren and great-grand- 
children and still begged for more work, Mr. Adams said to her, 
* Mother, you and I will form a society for the benefit of poor 
boys. I will furnish the yarn and you shall do the knitting.' 
The yarn was provided and for sometime it was very quiet in 
mother's room, but at the end of fourteen working days, a 
little package of seven pairs of mittens appeared one morning 
on the library table, and at the end of another fourteen days 
another package of the same number, so that in twenty-eight 
days she had knit twenty-eight mittens for the poor little 
outsiders. Her last work, finished about three weeks before 
her death, was the knitting of three pairs of stockings for a 
Home Missionary box." 

And so with a character chastened and beautified more and 
more as the years had passed on, with a scarcely perceptible 
dimming on the intellectual faculties, though the outward 
senses were somewhat worn and blunted, with undiminished 
affection for her surviving descendants, having just caressed 
the little one of the fourth generation— not knowing that it 
was the last time, and spared the pain of conscious leave- 
taking— she fell asleep to awake in the light of God, 



Page luenly-om 



COLO N EL PA U L DUDLEY S A RG E N T 



" Oh! honored beloved, 

To earth unconfined 

Thou hast soared on high 

Thou hast left us behind. 

But our parting is not forever; 

We will follow thee by Heaven's light, 

Where the grave cannot dissever 

The Souls whom God will unite." 



In reviewing her old age, the greatest regret of her children 
is that she was so strictly and persistently self-abnegative. 
Never permitting herself any indulgence or allowing anything 
to be done for her which she could by any possibility do for 
herself, it seems like a triumph for her that with her own hand 
she helped to prepare her bed the last time that such prepara- 
tion was needful for her. 



Wakefield, Mass., August, 1877. 



Page twenty-two 



COLONEL PAUL D U D LE Y SARGENT 



Col. Paul Dudley Sargent, late of Sullivan, Maine, was a 
son of Col. Epes Sargent, formerly of Gloucester, Mass., by 
his second wife, widow of Hon. Samuel Brown, of Salem. Her 
father was John Winthrop, F. R. S., her mother was Ann Dud- 
ley, granddaughter of Gov. (Thomas) Dudley, and daughter 
of Gov. Joseph Dudley. 

John Winthrop, F. R. S., was son of Wait Still Winthrop, 
grandson of Gov. John Winthrop, of Conn., and great grandson 
of Gov. John Winthrop, of Massachusetts Bay, the first 
Governor of the Colonies. 

Col. Paul Dudley Sargent was born in Salem, Mass., in 
1745, married Lucy Saunders, daughter of Thomas Saunders, 
of Salem (?) a patriotic and distinguished member of the 
Council of Massachusetts during the dispute with the mother 
country. His wife, mother of Lucy Saunders, was eldest daugh- 
ter of Rev. Thomas Smith, of Portland, Maine. 

The biographer of Rev. Thomas Smith says, " The most 
prominent figure in our history through the greater part of 
the eighteenth century was the Rev. Thomas Smith, the first 
ordained minister after the settlement of the town. For a long 
course of years he was the most distinguished preacher in this 
part of the country; for many years the only physician in 
town. He lived under the reign of four sovereigns, and the 
presidency of George Washington, dying in the year 1795, in 
the ninety-fourth year of his age, after a ministry with the 
people of Portland of sixty-eight years and two months." 

Thomas Sanders was born in Gloucester; married about 
1752, Lucy, daughter of Rev. Thomas Smith, of Portland; 
and died January 10, 1774, aged forty-five. It was his son 
Thomas, born in 1759, who settled in Salem, and died a wealthy 
citizen of that place, June 5, 1844. 

Winthrop Sargent, M. D. 
1879 



Page twenty-three 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 



_ SANDERS' ANCESTRY 

1. John Sanders or Saunders, the immigrant ancetoi's, 
was born in England; came to Ipswich in 1635 or earlier, but 
is first mentioned at that date. Was admitted freeman in 
1643. He removed to Hampton, N. H., about 1643, and sold 
land there to Henry Dow. He had a house lot in Ipswich, 
between Mr. Sewall's and Saltonstall's garden at the mill; 
he sold land at the Meadows in Ipswich in 1639. This lot is 
easily identified with the lot bounded on the three sides by the 
Green, North Main and Summer Streets. We also find mention 
of Sanders' brook, which was on the road leading to Topsfield. 
He was fined for using " indiscreet words " in 1643, at Hampton, 
and soon afterward settled at Cape Porpoise (Kennebunk- 
port), Me. He had six " little children " according to the court 
records of Hampton, in the case mentioned. He married Ann 

. He bought land in Wells, Me., August 20, 1645, of 

Ezekiel Knight; but his first purchase in Maine appears to 
be two years earlier, July 14, 1645, of the patentee. Sir Ferdi- 
nando Gorges, one hundred and fifty acres, between Little River 
and Cape Porpoise, in Wells, and fifty acres in the vicinity. 
Flewellyn, son of Sagamore Sosavan, confirmed the sale of 
lands by his father (Indian chief), to John Sanders, Sr., John 
Bush and Peter Tarbutt, land above Wells and Cape Porpoise, 



Pftj/c tivenly-fonr 



COLONEL PA U L DUDLEY S A RG E N T 

between the cape and a line four miles west of Saco River. 
Sanders bought land of Peter Tarbutt, December 16, 1663. 

John Sanders died in 1670. His widow and eldest son, 
Thomas, deeded land adjoining Symond Bussey and Nicholas 
Cole to Andrew Alger, October 21, 1670. Children: 1. Thomas 
lived in Arundel, sold land in Falmouth in 1732; 2. John, 
mentioned below; 3. Elizabeth; three others. 

2. John Sanders, son of John Sanders (1) was born about 
1640. He settled at Cape Porpoise with his father when a 

child. He was a fisherman. He married Mary . His 

father was known as John, Sr., in 1663. John, Jr. sold land to 
Brian Pendleton, of Winter Harbor, at Cape Porpoise, south- 
west of Long Cove, October 6, 1673, being then married. The 
consideration was three pounds in peas and wheat. He died 
about 1700, and about 1702 his family located in Gloucester, 
driven from home, probably by the Indian troubles of that 
period. The history of Gloucester intimates that the family 
came direct from England. That is an error. Nathaniel 
Sanders, of Gloucester, quitclaimed his share of his father's 
estate to his brother in law, Jonathan S. Springer, March 9, 
1713-14. Mary Sanders Pease and her husband, Samuel 
Pease did likewise, March 10, 1713-14, the property being at 
Cape Porpoise as mentioned above. The widow Mary died at 
Gloucester, December 21, 1717, aged sixty years. The children 
were: 1. John, lost at sea February 17, 1736, on a voyage to 
the Isle of Sable, married; 2. Nathaniel, had four sons, Nathan- 
iel, John, Joseph and David, and five daughters; 3. Captain 
Thomas (see below); 4. Edward, died 1759, shipwright at 
Gloucester, left four sons and three daughters; 5. Joseph, 



I'agf ticenly-Jice 



COLO N EL PAUL DUDLEY S A RG E N T 

married January 1, 1735 and had son, Nathaniel, born June 28, 
1736. Joseph was lost at sea with his brother John, both had 
posthumous sons; 6. Mary, married Samuel Pease; 7. Eliza- 
beth, married Johnathan Springer and from that marriage 
Thomas Todd, my brother-in-law is descended. 

For much of the following we are indebted to Babson's 
history of Gloucester. " The first persons bearing the name of 
Sanders appear in town in 1702. They were shipwrights, and 
were attracted thither, without doubt, by the great activity 
with which the business of shipbuilding began to be carried on 
about that time. The family apparently consisted of the 
widowed mother, Mary, and her seven children, John, Nathan- 
iel, Thomas, Edward, Joseph, Mary and Elizabeth; the latter 
married Jonathan Springer, and Mary was married to Samuel 
Pease. Joseph died November 18, 1712, and his mother was 
appointed administratrix of his estate July 30, 1716, but died 
before completing the trust, and his brother Thomas was made 
administrator de bonis non. The whole amount received by 
him was eighty-nine pounds twelve shillings, the larger part of 
which w^as recovered at law, which occasioned the "expense 
at court to be very great," so that the six brothers and sisters, 
his heirs, got only about six pounds each. Of John, the first- 
named brother, I can say no more. (According to the record 
found in the Todd-Wheeler genealogy, noted on the preceding 
page, this Joseph was one of two brothers lost at sea, but the 
account given below would make this a mistake.) Nathaniel 
had five daughters and four sons: Nathaniel, was born 1705, 
died September 27, 1717; John, March 13, 1707; Joseph, Oc- 
tober 17, 1708, and David, 1715. This John I suppose to be 



Pagi twcnty-sii 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY S A RG E N T 



the one who married Mary DolHver, December 1, 1736, by 
whom a son was born August 7, 1737. His brother Joseph was 
probably the same who married Mary Stevens, January 1, 
1735, and had a son, Nathaniel, born June 29, 1736. I know 
not who, if not these two brothers, were the sufferers by a 
disaster at sea, mentioned in our records, though it is difficult 
to reconcile the dates, unless there is an omission of double 
dating according to the custom of the time." Rev. Samuel 
Chandler says in his Diary: " Joseph Sanders and John Sanders 
went away in February, 1736, for Isle of Sables, and had not 
been heard of 26th of August following; supposed to have been 
run down presently after they went out in a schooner belonging 
to Epes Sargent, Esq." 

The Todd-Wheeler record previously given assumes that 
it was John and Joseph, sons of John and Mary, who were 
thus lost, but they would both have been men well past middle 
life, while the two mentioned by Babson v^'ould be young men 
and apt to go on a fishing voyage, and the statement that 
they left posthumous sons, could only apply to these latter. 

3. Thomas Sanders, son of John (2) and his wife, Mary, 
married Abigail Curney, on January 12, 1703. He died July 
17, 1742, aged sixty, and she died February 12, 1767, aged nine- 
ty. If these dates are correct she must have been several years 
older than he. Of the Curney family we learn but little: 
John Curney married Abigail Skelling in November, 1670, 
and came from Falmouth, Me., to Gloucester, where in 1671 he 
had a grant of half an acre of land where his house was stand- 
ing. He died May 4, 1725, aged eighty. She died February 
15, 1722, aged seventy. 



Page Iwcnty-sevi'H 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

In March, 1704, he had of the commoners an acre of ground 
between the head of the Harbor and Cripple Cove; and, in 
1706, a piece of flats below where he built vessels. He was a 
shipwright himself, and carried on the business of shipbuilding 
extensively. From the frequent occurrence of his name in 
connection with grants of ship timber it is evident that he was 
a man of great enterprise. In 1725 he commanded the 
Government sloop " Merry-meeting." He had three sons and 
four daughters. Thomas, born March 20, 1704 (see below); 
Abigail, June 29, 1705, married Peter Dolliver; Joseph, Feb- 
ruary 21, 1707; Mary, March 10, 1709, married Daniel Gibbs; 
John, June 14, 1711; Lydia, March 24, 1714, married Daniel 
Witham, and Elizabeth, April 10, 1717, who married Zebulon 
Witham, and died November 27, 1767. Thomas Sanders 
left a clear estate of 3,160 pounds; one of the largest that had 
been accumulated in town at the date of death in 1742. 

Joseph, second son of Thomas Sanders (3) and brother of 
Thomas, Jr., was a sea captain, and had a wife, Elizabeth. 
He died of small pox on his passage from Ireland to Boston, 
June 25, 1732, leaving an only child, Joseph, born September, 
1730, who married Martha Henderson September 9, 1752, 
and was drowned on his passage to George's River, Me., April 
6, 1757. His wife and son were in Gloucester at the time, for 
we find in the diary of Rev. Samuel Chandler the following 
entry: 1757, April 21. Just after meeting I was sent for to 
Capt. Winthrop Sargent's; his child dangerously sick; I 
prayed with it and it died in a few minutes; then went to Capt. 
Gibbs,' at his desire went to carry the news to Mrs. Sanders, 
of the death of her husband, drowned at sea; then visited and 



Pnyc iwcntti-dyhi 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

milk with berries." That he does not suffer from the want of 
luxuries, but, " I know not what your aunt would do if it were 
not for the kindness of our children. Her health is fast declining 
and it cannot be long that either of us will stand in need of 
temporal comforts. 

That we may be fit for the blessed rest is our utmost wish." 

At a later period, through the kind intervention of his Boston 
friends, his pension was restored and this added to the comforts 
of his old age. The children to whose generosity he refers were 
John Sargent, late of Calais, Maine, and Julia, who was now 
the wife of Dr. A. Johnson, both settled within a stone's throw 
of their parents. A crushing blow had come to them in the loss 
at sea of their much loved and promising son, Paul Dudley, 
at the age of twenty years. 

It was a few years after the revered father had been laid in 
his desired resting-place and while the aged mother still 
lingered in the isolation of utter deafness and decrepitude, 
that Dr. and Mrs. Johnson were awakened by the bursting of 
flam.es into their chamber, and it was with difficulty that their 
six children were rescued before their pleasant home was a 
mass of cinders. This, with losses that occurred at sea nearly 
the same time left them almost penniless, but so thankful 
were they for the escape of the family that their children do 
not remember ever to have heard the event alluded to but in 
terms of gratitude. 

After this they lived several years in Cherryfield, and then 
removed to Brewer, on the Penobscot River, opposite Bangor. 

Mrs. Johnson has been a widow for the last thirty years, 
living alternately in the families of her children. There has 



I'aoe scctnlcen 



COLO N E L PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 




CATHERINE WINTHROP SARGENT 
Wife of Col. Epes Sargent 

(From a portrait by Sniibcrl) 



Page eighteen 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY S A RG E N T 



been something peculiarly distressing in the circumstances 
which have attended family bereavements. 

The first sundering of the household band was in the death 
of a lovely daughter. Mary Sargent Johnson, just twenty 
years of age, full of life and love and enthusiasm in the religious 
life on which she had just entered, who died while with an aunt 
in Sullivan of typhus fever; while the mother, sister and 
brothers were stricken down by the same malignant disease 
at their home in Brewer, and only the father could witness 
the departure of his beloved child. 

On the 4th of July, 1847, the husband and father died 
suddenly at the Massachusetts Hospital in Boston, where it was 
supposed that he was in a fair way to recover from the effects 
of an amputation, which had been some weeks previously 
successfully performed. 

In 1850, the second son, Thomas Saunders Johnson, died 
in California so suddenly that the same mail packet brought 
at once his letters, written in high health and spirits, and the 
tidings of his death by cholera; and then the youngest, born 
three months after the midnight conflagration above men- 
tioned, of whom a chronicler of those days says, " 1st lieut. 
Dudley H. Johnson, 17th Maine Volunteers, as promising and 
gallant a young officer as ever drew sword in defense of his 
country, on whose altar he laid his life while bravely leading 
his company in a charge at the battle of Chancellorsville, 
May 3rd, 1863." 

All these were heavy blows, wounds which no earthly power, 
not even the progress of time could heal, yet the mother never 
was heard to murmur or question the love and wisdom of her 



I'uyc nini'Ifen 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

Heavenly Father. Though smitten to the heart her bearing 
under all plainly said, " I know in whom I have believed, and 
am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have com- 
mitted to him against that day." 

Once only when, as she thought, a daughter was grieving 
immoderately over a sad bereavement, the anguish that could 
not always be suppressed burst out in the exclamation, " O 
my child, you had the comfort of seeing your child die in your 
arms, but even this has always been denied to me." 

But the great passion of her life was to impart, and most 
industriously did she devote the years of her widowhood and 
old age to whatever might promote the happiness and comfort 
of others. Her letters have for all these years been a source of 
comfort and pride to her descendants, and her exquisite work- 
manship in knitting, netting and embroidery has enriched and 
beautified every household that came within the limits of her 
family and social circle. 

Her eldest daughter, Mrs. Adams, in whose pleasant home 
she passed the last six or seven years says, " I shall never 
forget how strange it seemed one morning about two months 
before her death, when I went into her room and found her 
sitting in her arm chair with her hands folded. 

" It was the first time I ever saw her sitting so. She was 
always either working or reading or kneeling in prayer. How 
often when I have wished to speak with her, I have waited 
almost impatiently for her to finish her devotions. ' A widow 
indeed ' continuing in prayer night and day. ' You will 
step easily across the river, dear mother,' I would say to 
myself, ' for he that is washed needeth not save to wash his 



Page twfniy 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 



I have record of but seven as follows: Thomas, Joseph, Brad- 
bury, Judith, who married Winthrop Sargent (S3e which family 
lineage), Abigail, who married William Dolliver, May 14, 1759, 
she died in 1816, Rebecca, who married Capt. James Babson; 
and Lydia, who married James Prentice. 

5. The Hon. Thomas Sanders, as he was termed, was the 
oldest son of Thomas and Judith Robinson Sanders, and became 
a distinguished citizen. He married about 1752, 1-ucy, daughter 
of one of the most noted ministers of the day. Rev. Thomas 
Smith, of Falmouth, Me., and died January 10, 1774, aged 
forty-five. His widow became the second wife of Rev. Eli 
Forbes, and died June 5, 1780, aged forty-eight. She lies 
buried by the side of her first husband and her gravestone is 
inscribed with the name that she received by her first marriage, 
a circumstance which tells its own story. Thomas Sanders 
was fitted for college by the Rev. Moses Parsons, of Byfield, 
and graduated at Harvard in 1748. It is not known that his 
education was designed to fit him for any learned profession, 
and it is believed that his life was chiefly devoted to com- 
mercial pursuits. He was representative, from 1761 to 1770, 
inclusive, and afterwards a councillor. He resigned his seat 
at the Council Board in June, 1773. He built, though not in 
its present shape, the large mansion next east of the Unitarian 
Meeting-house, where he resided a number of years. His 
death took place at a critical political period, and if his life 
had been spared he would have borne without doubt, in the 
events which followed, the conspicuous part for which his 
education, patriotism and experience in public affairs so well 
qualified him. His pastor, the Rev. Samuel Chandler, thus 
eulogizes him in the newspaper of the day: 



{'aije lliirty-lhree 



COLONEL PA U L DUDLEY SARGENT 

" Exalted sentiments of generosity, humanity, piety, 
probity, and public spirit, animated his soul with many noble 
resolves, and prompted him to vigorous exertions in public 
and private life. With an uncorrupt and truly patriotic spirit, 
he served the town several years as representative, and for 
several years had a seat at the Council Board, in which political 
spheres a laudable ambition of being extensively useful engaged 
the liberal movements of his soul in assiduous efforts to be a 
guardian to the civil Constitution, for which he had a tender 
solicitude. Loyalty, virtue and public spirit bloomed in his 
mind, and merited approbation; till the springs began to fail; 
until infirmities brought on a relaxation of nature and a languor 
of spirit which caused him to resign his public posts and retire. 
In the uneven traces of life he exemplified the grace of patience 
and preserved a calm and harmony within himself. Christian 
fortitude encircled his soul in variegated trials and he viewed 
the approach of death with Christian confidence, and is doubt- 
less gone to rest in an unchangeable state of everlasting bliss." 

Of the twelve children of Hon. Thomas Sanders, son of the 
second Thomas, born August 14, 1729, eight at least appear to 
have been living when he died in 1774. Five of these were 
daughters, all of whom were married. Lucy, married Col. 
Paul Dudley Sargent with whom in 1788 she removed to 
Sullivan, Maine, and died quite aged and in a " state of utter 
deafness and decrepitude " as stated by a descendant. This 
latter, a great granddaughter errs in saying that she was 
daughter of Thomas Sanders of Salem, but states correctly 
that she was daughter of Lucy (Smith) Sanders. Several of 
her descendants named Adams live in Weathersfield, Conn., 



Pddc Ihirty-four 



__ COLONEL PA U L DUDLEY SARGENT 

and two are in business in Boston. Julia, the daughter of 
Paul Dudley and Lucy Sanders Sargent, married Dr. A. 
Johnson, of Sullivan, Me., and died June 30, 1877, aged ninety- 
two years. The daughter, Judith, married Thomas Sanders, 
the schoolmaster previously spoken of; Harriet married Peter 
Dolliver; Sarah, married Thomas Augustus Vernon, a merchant 
of St. Petersburg, Russia, and Mary, married Erasmus Babbitt, 
a lawyer of Sturbridge, Mass. The latter had a daughter 
who was the mother of Charlotte Cushman, the distinguished 
actress. Of the five sons of Hon. Thomas Sanders only two 
lived to marry. Thomas, born March 26, 1759, was sent to 
Byfield to the celebrated Academy there, to be fitted for 
college, but left on the death of his father and entered the count- 
ing room of Mr. Derby, of Salem, a distinguished East India 
merchant. He finally became a merchant himself and carried 
on his business with such success that at his death, June 5, 
1844, he left a large fortune to his wife and children. His wife, 
Elizabeth Elkins, to whom he was married in 1782, was an 
authoress and a lady of admirable qualities of heart and mind. 
She died February 18, 1851, in her eighty-ninth year. Their 
oldest son, Charles, was born May 2, 1783, graduated at Har- 
vard, and died April 7, 1864, leaving no children but deser\/ing 
special remembrance for his liberal bequest to the cause of 
temperance in the home of his ancestors. A clause in his will 
reads thus: 

" Believing as I do that drunkenness is a crime, and likewise 
the origin of a large portion of the crimes, vices and misery 
which exists among us I am desirous to do all in my power for 
its prevention and cure by establishing, in Gloucester, the home 



Piiyc Ihirty-fivc 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY S A RG E N T 



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i'fl(/e Ihirly-siJ 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

of my ancestors, and in Cambridge, my present place of resi- 
dence, a permanent salary, to be paid to some worthy man 
in each place, who has the discretion and zeal for the cause, to 
be constantly employed as a missionary in the cause of temper- 
ance in reforming old drunkards and preventing young drunk- 
ards and abolishing as far as possible the use of all intoxicating 
articles. I therefore give and bequeath, to the town of Glou- 
cester, the sum of ten thousand dollars, to be held as permanent 
funds, the interest of which shall be paid quarterly, as salaries 
to those persons employed for the above-named purpose, in 
these places so long as the vice of drunkneness continues." 

Besides this son, Mr. Thomas Sanders, of Salem, left a 
son, George T., a daughter, Catherine, wife of Dudley L. 
Pickman; a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, wife of Hon. Leverett 
Saltonstall, and a daughter, Caroline, wife of Nathaniel 
Saltonstall. 

Joseph, youngest son of Hon. Thomas Sanders, born 
November 22, 1772, married, according to the Edgartown 
records, Eliza Allen, November 18, 1801. He became a sea- 
faring man and was for some time a naval officer, serving as 
lieutenant on board the United States frigate " Constitution." 
He died July 13, 1804, aged thirty-two. His widow took for 
her second husband, October 10, 1805, Joseph Kendrick, of 
Rochester. 

The house built by Hon. Thomas Sanders on Middle Street, 
in 1764 and still standing, together with four acres of land and 
orchard, were sold after his death to John Beach for 1,050 
pounds. 

5. Joseph, son of the second Thomas and brother to the 
Hon. Thomas, was born April 9, 1737, married Anna Stevens, 



J'(iO<' Ihirly-scrcn 



COLONEL PA U L DUDLEY S A RG E N T 

May 12, 1760, but their wedded life was of short duration. 
Rev. Mr. Chandler records in his journal: " December 10, 
1761. In the evening about nine o'clock, was sent for to see 
Joseph Sanders; talked with him some time and prayed; 
after which he fell into a delirium; to a high degree distracted; 
it took six men to hold him in bed. I came home about ten 
o'clock in the morning;" and again, " December 23, I was 
called up early to see Joseph Sanders; found him dying; he 
died about 8 o'clock." His widow married Dr. Samuel Plum- 
mer, November 19, 1763. His only child, Joseph became a 
shipmaster, and died in Boston about January 7, 1830, aged 
seventy, leaving a daughter, Nancy Olive, wife of William 
Coffin. 

5. Bradbury, third and youngest son of the second Thomas, 
born August 23, 1742, became a shipmaster and merchant. 
He was a patriot of the Revolution and took an active part 
in the repulse of Linzee, in 1775. The date of his death is not 
known but it is certain that he was dead in 1783. His wife 
was Anna, daughter of Capt. James Babson. His daughter, 
Anna, married her cousin, Capt. Joseph Sanders; another, 
Abigail, married Captain William Hutchings, and another, 
Mary, married Capt. Daniel Rogers. He had a son, Bradbury, 
whose career is not given. He married Judith, daughter of 
Col. Joseph Foster, who, in company with Miss Clementine 
Beach, conducted a popular boarding school for young ladies, 
in Dorchester in the early part of this century. Capt. Bradbury 
Sanders probably built and certainly occupied the large gam- 
brel-roofed house at Rose-Bank, still standing, though not on 
its original site. In the " chamber over the sitting room " 



Page Ihirly-cight 



COLO N EL PAUL DUDLEY S A RG E N T 

there were, at his death, " calimancoes, green broadcloth, 
scarlet broadcloth, shallon, calico, handkerchiefs, gloves, cam- 
bric, sewing-silk, pins, needles, & c," all valued at 149 pounds 
and indicating that here was kept a hundred years ago one of 
the dry goods shops of the town. 




TOMB OF (()I,<)M;i. I'Al I. 1)1 I)I,I:Y SARGENT 
At Sullivan, Maine 



f'agp Utirtij-nine 



COLONEL PA U L DUDLEY SARGENT 



The accompanying sketch, from the pen of 
Charles Sprague Sargent, was written since we went 
to press, and it seems to fit in so well with the few 
facts already noted, that I feel you should read his 
little brief upon the Sargent Family. Both Pro- 
fessor Sargent and his cousin, John Singer Sargent, 
have inherited their virtues and powers and carried 
the name of Sargent further than any of their 
ancestors, which lends interest to his short story. 



Pnoe forty 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 



THE SARGENT FAMILY 
OF GLOUCESTER 



William Sargent, who came from England to Gloucester, 
probably near the middle of the Seventeenth Century, is the 
first of the family of whom we have record. He soon left 
Gloucester, but was followed by a son, also named William. 
To him was granted two acres of land on Eastern Point in 1678, 
the year in which he married Mary Duncan of Gloucester. 
Sixteen children were born of this marriage, but of the sons, 
only the fifth, Epes, left descendants. 

Little is known of the first and second generations of the 
family; and any really authentic account of the Gloucester 
Sargents must start with Epes of the third generation, from 
whom they are all descended. He was born in Gloucester in 
1690 and became, like several of his descendants, a prosperous 
and highly respected merchant. After the death of his first 
wife in 1743, he moved to Salem, Mass., where he died nineteen 
years later. Fifteen children were born to Epes Sargent. Of 
his eight sons, four only left descendants. The oldest of these 
four sons, the second Epes (1721-1779), was, up to the time of 
the Revolution, a successful merchant and ship owner. His 
interest in John Murray, the Universalist clergyman, who was 
induced to come to Gloucester by him and his brother Win- 
throp, brought religious persecution on the Sargents, and Epes 



I'tiyp forty-otie 



COLO N EL PA U L DUDLEY S A RGE N T 

Sargent further suffered and was finally ruined financially 
by his loyalty to the Mother Country at the breaking out of 
the Revolution. The best known descendants of the second 
Epes Sargent were his great grandsons, John Osborne Sargent 
(1811-1891, Harvard 1830), classical scholar, lawyer, editor, 
Overseer of Harvard College and an early President of the 
Harvard Club of New York, and his brother Epes (1813-1880), 
the industrious and successful author, editor and compiler. 
His Sargent's Standard Speaker is remembered by many men 
who were boys fifty or sixty years ago. Boston men, who were 
boys in the fifties and sixties of the last century remember, 
too, another of the great grandsons of Epes Sargent, Jr., the 
famous schoolmaster, Epes Sargent Dixwell (1807-1899, Har- 
vard 1827), headmaster of the Boston Latin School and later 
of a popular and successful private school for boys. 

. Winthrop Sargent (1727-1793), the fifth child of the first 
Epes, was an officer in 1743 on a sloop of war at the taking of 
Louisburg and Cape Breton. In spite of his activity in intro- 
ducing Universalism into Gloucester, he became the most 
influential and respected citizen of the town. He was a member 
of the Committee of Public Safety during the Revolution, a 
member of the Convention for Forming the State Constitution 
of 1779, and a member of the General Court in 1788. The first 
church devoted to the spread of the Universalist belief was 
built in the garden of Winthrop Sargent's home in Gloucester, 
His oldest child, Judith (1751-1820), married for her second 
husband John Murray, who had brought the Universalist creed 
from England to America and had received encouragement 
and substantial help from the Sargent family. Mrs. Murray 



Page forty-tu-o 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

is perhaps better remembered by two beautiful portraits, 
one by Copley, painted probably at the time of her first mar- 
riage, when she was only eighteen years old, and the other by 
Stuart, painted in the first years of the nineteenth century, 
than she is remembered by the products of her industrious 
pen, which are now as well forgotten as remembered. 

Winthrop Sargent's oldest son, Winthrop (1753-1820, 
Harvard 1771), served with distinction through the Revolu- 
tionary War, obtaining the rank of Major. After the war, 
he was one of the organizers of the New Ohio Co., and became 
its Surveyor-General. On the organization of the Northwest 
Territory he was appointed its Secretary. He served with 
distinction as Adjutant-General in Saint Clair's disastrous 
campaign against the Indians, and was wounded in the battle 
of the Miami Village. When the Mississippi Territory was 
organized, Winthrop Sargent was appointed by President 
Adams its first Governor, and arrived in Natchez in W^. ' I'l^ 
When Adams was succeeded by Jefferson, the Governor was 
removed from office and Winthrop Sargent became a successful 
cotton planter and continued to live in Natchez until the time 
of his death. His mansion at Natchez, to which he gave the 
name of Gloster Place, was occupied by his descendants until 
1880 and is still standing. The most distinguished of Gover- 
nor Sargent's descendants was his grandson, another Winthrop 
Sargent (1825-1870, Harvard Law School 1847), a man of 
letters, best known by his Lije of Major Andre and his Account 
of Braddock's Defeat. A granddaughter of the Governor was 
one of the famous beauties of her day, and as famous for her 
wit as for her beauty; and it is interesting that one of his 



Payi' fortij-lhrce 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY S A RGE N T 



great granddaughters was the first woman elected a member 
of the London City Council. 

Fitzwilliam (1768-1822), the youngest son of Winthrop, 
son of the first Epes, was also a successful ship owner and 
merchant in Gloucester. His oldest son Winthrop (1792-1874), 
moved to Philadelphia, where he has been succeeded by four 
generations of Winthrop Sargents in direct descent. A son of 
Winthrop and a grandson of Fitzwilliam, Dr. Fitzwilliam 
Sargent (1820-1889) married, in 1850, Mary Newbold Singer 
(1826-1906), of Philadelphia. From this marriage was born 
in Florence, Italy, on January 12, 1856, John Singer Sargent, 
-""wRiD, in the passage of time the world will hold to be one of the 
most distinguished men of American descent. 

The seventh child of Epes Sargent, Daniel (1731-1805), 
was the greatest merchant of a family which has produced many 
successful men of affairs. He married in 1763, Mary, the 
beautiful daughter of John Turner, a Salem merchant, the third 
owner of that name of the house in which his daughter Mary 
was born, made famous by Hawthorne as " The House of the 
Seven Gables." Later Daniel Sargent moved to Boston and 
lived and died in a splendid house surrounded by a large 
garden, at the corner of what are now Essex and Lincoln 
Streets. Nearly all the Boston Sargents are descended from 
Daniel Sargent and Mary Turner, who had seven children. 
Their second son, Ignatius, was the grandfather of Charles 
Sprague Sargent (1841- . Harvard College 1862). Henry 
(1776-1845), their fourth son, was an artist of distinction who 
painted several portraits of members of the family and is best 
known by his picture of the Landing of the Pilgrims, now at 



Page forly-fuur 



COLONEL PAUL DUDLEY SARGENT 

Plymouth. The artistic taste of this branch of the Boston 
Sargents was shown in Wodenethe on the Hudson River, in 
what is now Beacon, the country home of the sons( of Henry 
Sargent. Henry Winthrop (1810 1882) Harvard 1^30, and in 
its day one of the most beautiful gardens in the United States. 
I>ucius Manlius Sargent (1786-1867), the youngest son of 
Daniel Sargent, is the best known of his children. An excellent 
classical scholar, although troubles at the college in the " days 
of hard cider and pewter platters," led to a rebellion over the 
" Commons " and prevented Sargent from graduating with 
his Harvard Class of 1804. He was an easy, voluminous and 
tireless writer and is now best remembered by his " Dealings 
with the Dead," in which he gathered a series of articles written 
for the press, and filled with interesting information about 
old Boston and its inhabitants. Lucius Manlius Sargent was 
one of the most industrious speakers and writers in the cause 
of temperance and his " Tempcravce Tales " passed through 
many editions, and in their day had great influence. The two 
sons of Lucius Manlius Sargent served with distinction in the 
Civil War and the younger who bore his name was killed in 
battle. 

Paul Dudley Sargent (1745-1827), a son of Epes Sargent 
by his second wife, was the most distinguished soldier of the 
Sargent Family Marching from Amherst, New Hampshire, 
to Concord, ^with a company of volunteers, he only arrived 
after the fight was over. P^^^^^Lsn, he wassfightly wounded. 
He was at one time an aide-de-camp of Washington, in company 
with Lafayette, with whom he formed a lasting friendship; 
he later commanded two Massachusetts regiments and entered 



I'a(jr furly-lii-r 



COLONEL PA U L DUDLEY SARGENT 

Boston at the head of his regiment after the evacuation by the 
British. After the war Colonel Sargent was unsuccessful in 
business and moved to Sullivan, Maine, where he Hes under a 
monument erected in his memory on the shores of Frenchman's 
Bay. Many of his descendants are living in the state of his 
adoption. 

Portraits of many members of the Sargent Family and a 
collection of books which they have written can be seen in the 
beautiful house at Gloucester, built about 1767 by Winthrop 
Sargent, the son of Epes, for his daughter Judith, in which she 
and John Murray, and later the author of " Fair Harvard " 
lived and now preserved as a memorial of the Sargent Family. 



Holm Lea " Brookline, Mass. 

November 15, 1920. 



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